Retroviral vectors based on murine leukemia viruses (MuLV) have been used in clinical investigations for over a decade. Alternative retroviruses, most notably vectors based on HIV-1 and other lentiviruses, are now entering into clinical trials. Although vectors are designed to be replication defective, recombination events during vector production could lead to the generation of replication com...

We have constructed a new series of lentivirus vectors based on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) that can transduce nondividing cells. The U3 region of the 5' long terminal repeat (LTR) in vector constructs was replaced with the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, resulting in Tat-independent transcription but still maintaining high levels of expression. A self-inactivating (SIN) vector ...

70 A large percentage of the topics covered at the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston were concerned with basic research aspects of HIV-1 and AIDS. Topics that generated particular interest included the identification of host factors that restrict retrovirus and lentivirus infection. In addition, a number of presentations concerned the use of RNA interference...

Equine infectious anaemia (EIA) is a persistent viral infection of equids. The causative agent, EIA virus (EIAV) is a lentivirus in the family Retroviridae, subfamily Orthoretrovirinae. Other members of the genus Lentivirus include: bovine immunodeficiency virus; caprine arthritis encephalitis virus; feline immunodeficiency virus; human immunodeficiency virus 1; human immunodeficiency virus 2; ...

Although ovine lentiviruses have been described in the United States since the early part of this century, North American strains of sheep lentiviruses remain relatively uncharacterized at the molecular level. The LTR of a North American ovine lentivirus, OLV-CU1, was found to be closely related at the molecular and functional levels to visna virus, the Icelandic ovine lentivirus. Sequence anal...

The Bcl-2 gene is frequently overexpressed in malignancy and is responsible for the resistance induced by chemotherapeutic drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the inhibition of Bcl-2 by lentivirus-mediated RNA interference would enhance doxorubicin cytotoxicity in the drug-resistant human osteosarcoma MG63 cells. Downregulation of Bcl-2 was confirmed by quantitative reverse ...